MANDALAY, Myanmar – At least 113 miners were killed on Thursday and the scores remained missing in northern Myanmar after a huge pile of muddy debris in a jade mine collapsed in an open pit, causing a deadly wave, said a official.
The disaster occurred after a heavy storm in Hpakant Township in Kachin State, where miners work in notoriously dangerous conditions to produce jade worth billions of dollars.
The death toll, which is expected to rise, was confirmed by U Tin Soe, the region’s minister of parliament.
The mine tailings pile known as tailings was more than 250 feet high when it collapsed in an open pit mine where a lake had formed due to recent rains, triggering a tsunami. The wave hit many of the miners, who drowned in the muddy water.
Video footage of the collapse showed the wave rising tens of feet high as green water swept from one end of the mine to the other. Photos from the site showed the bodies of more than 30 miners lined up on the rocky ground as dozens of men waited.
“At least 200 will be killed for this,” said U Kyaw Min, Wai Khar district administrator. “We are working on the rescue and collecting corpses.”
He said the continued rain was hampering the search and rescue effort.
“We cannot go deeper to rescue, so we have to collect the floating corpses,” he added. “It is also difficult to send patients to the hospital because the roads are muddy due to the rain.”
Mine collapses are frequent in the jade mining region of Kachin State. More than 50 died in a tailings collapse last year, and dozens were swept out the year before. At least 120 were buried in 2015 after the collapse of a tailings pile.
Kachin is the northernmost state in Myanmar and borders China and India. The state, which is rich in natural resources, has been affected by fighting between military and ethnic rebels, but the lucrative jade mining area has remained under government control.
Despite attempts to regulate the industry, much of the mining there is carried out illegally by wild miners.
Saw Nang reported from Mandalay, Myanmar and Richard. C Paddock from Bangkok. Hannah Beech contributed reports from Bangkok.
